17 April 2013 11:44 PM

A moving funeral, but Britain is now a country where behaviour that was once unthinkable is now routine

What was so moving, in the end, was that Baroness Thatcher was buried as a simple Christian.

Borne on a gun-carriage to St Paul’s cathedral as a great warrior statesman, Margaret Hilda went as a humble human soul to meet her ultimate fate, as must we all. But what a faith she had, blazing out in those magnificent, soaring hymns and readings that she had apparently so carefully chosen.

The funeral ceremonial was pitch-perfect, solemn but beautiful and uplifting, and choreographed and staged with flawless precision. This after all is what Britain still does so well. So much so that some foolish folk have allowed themselves to get carried away and claim that this shows Britain essentially still remains the same great country it always was.

What a short attention span such individuals must have.

Sure, the protests that had been threatened for the funeral, by people whose gross disrespect for the dead suggests an equivalent and alarming contempt for the living, were kept at bay or drowned out by the many who made a point of standing up for elementary decency along the route.

But Britain is now a country where behaviour that was once unthinkable is now routine.

Where the mob is unleashed every minute on social media to make vile remarks, to bully and intimidate. Where reasoned argument has been substantially replaced by vilification and insult. Where so many have been moronically parroting the conformist whine of the day, that Mrs T had been a divisive figure -- as if any true leader does not create argument and controversy.
Where young people are so devoid of compassion or respect for another human being, so convulsed by hatred as a result of their narcissistic incredulity that there can be any viewpoint other than their own, that they actually gloated and danced in the streets over the death of a frail 87-year-old. And then they and those who shared their point of view of Lady Thatcher actually accused her of making Britain selfish and uncaring!

It is indeed becoming a selfish, brutalised, uncaring society. But this is the result of fundamental social and cultural changes -- like the fragmentation of the family, the refusal to transmit a common culture through education, the balkanisation of Britain through multiculturalism, the victim culture which gives a free pass to certain privileged groups for their bad behaviour.
All these changes flowed from the tremendous onslaught by the left upon the Judeo-Christian values of the west, and the replacement of the bonds of duty which keep a a society together by a rampant hyper-individualism and group rights which break it apart on the rocks of selfishness.

Margaret Thatcher’s flaw was to view everything through the narrow prism of economics, and thus fail altogether to appreciate the need to shore up those bonds of tradition, custom and informal obligation which could not be fitted into the model of the free-market.

She left the battleground of the culture war all but undefended. Those politicians who came after her took a culture that was already beginning to smash against the rocks of individualism and delivered, in many different ways and under different political banners, the coup de grace.

What has also been gradually eroded in this tragic process are virtues associated specifically with England -- not with Britain, but with England or Englishness, the dominant culture within Britain: those knightly qualities of gentleness and tolerance, lion-hearted decency, stoicism and emotional self-restraint, innate fairness and a passion for order.

Does Dan Hodges, who apparently finds this argument so ludicrous, really think we shall ever have another leader prepared to defend the Britain that embodied those values?

Our leaders have spent years not defending but wilfully destroying the bedrock characteristics of British national identity, based on that dominant English culture, in order to replace it with something entirely different.

Yes, we still do these great events incomparably well. Yes, there are still the decent British who turn out in great number to demonstrate their attachment to what Britain once represented. But they are being replaced by younger generations who in their uneducated ignorance don’t even know what has been lost, let alone care, and who can no longer even think for themselves to go against the deadening consensus.
That’s why I felt it wasn’t just Lady Thatcher being buried in London today.

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"Britain is now a country where behaviour that was once unthinkable is now routine." When was the behaviour unthinkable? This is the Country where public hangings were viewed as a spectator sport, which people paid to attend and cheered at up to and including the 18th Century. The 19th Century example of the Burke and Hare body snatching give an impression that there was little respect for the dead in that era either.

If you mean there has been a decline in moral standards in the Country since the Victorian era and throughout the 20th Century, then say so, don't give the impression that we now have less respect than the dead in the Country and have a lower moral standard than we have ever had in this Country which is plainly not true.

I also observe today that they are finally realising that nursery school is not quite the wonderful thing it was thought to be. Bringing up a child in the formative years before school takes a lot of input. They need to be socialised in many things everyday in the community as well as mix with different family age groups and a few friends, to learn respect, manners and how to behave in different situations.Herding children together to learn bad behaviour when they haven't come with it from home is a disaster.
Plus we've had the rise of allowing children to be born in households where there are several different father's, enabled by the benefit system and the dysfunction that brings. Marriage has had to compete with a system that is more profitable.
There is resistance to bring back tax support for marriage, to make the allowance transferable, enabling mums to do their childcare at home. Which would go in some way to raising children in stable family units, having the time to give them more input as I was able to.. Thus taking us back to a better time in society, when children like mine and my friends children went to school fully ready.
I'm afraid that good old trait of English common sense doesn't seem to be much in evidence today.

Good article. Just a few observations over the years...Schools, children were coming out less well behaved and disciplined. Noticed it at my daughter's school in the 80s. Younger teachers, less authority.
Television is I fear the major influencing factor. While we had few channels and a proper watershed it was still parents and family that they learnt from. There is ever increasing shallowness, cruelty in reality shows and much more graphic violence. Plus the liberal slant on many things.
The release of videos into the home I believe has damaged many children whose daft parents gave access to things they shouldn't be viewing.
Those children are now parents and have grown up through the ladette culture promoted on T.V. had the relaxed drinking era, hours and availability and the failure to take a tough stance on drugs. Also promoted by celebrity, Amy Winehouse and Russell Brand for example.
We now have far too many cautions and people re offending while on bail and gives a weak message, lessening the deterrent. My husband finished his police service in the cells and those detained were coming back from court with the message they only got 18 months, can do that standing on our heads.
Then we have changing crime from an influx of foreigners. We are seeig our towns change and some of us have had to move our families away from areas that have deteriorated. Due to this, due to the wrong siting of bail hostels, sub letting where drug and prostitution has gone on. Believe me it's quicker to get out than to wait for some kind of justice.
Many of us still have English values, it's wonderful to see some decency and respect at Maggie's funeral. It's an uphill battle to stop the rot and it's very depressing.

Melanie Phillips gives a list of specifically English, but not apparantly British, virtues which she believes are being eroded. Fair play, gentleness, tolerance, decency, stoicism, emotional self-restraint, innate fairness and a passion for order are all to be found (or were to be found) south of Berwick or east of Monmouth. Would anyone who takes this claim seriously care to tell me whether I should feel more ashamed of my Welsh mother or of my Scottish paternity and upbringing?

"What has also been gradually eroded in this tragic process are virtues associated specifically with England -- not with Britain, but with England or Englishness, the dominant culture within Britain: those knightly qualities of gentleness and tolerance, lion-hearted decency, stoicism and emotional self-restraint, innate fairness and a passion for order." Cobblers I'm afraid. You're talking about values that are innately British but were hijacked by the English because the contribution of Scots to Britain compared with their population size has always irked. Remember that poem "If" by Kipling Melanie? That poem that sums up all those quintessentially "English" values? Written about a Scotsman my dear. For goodness sake get a hold of some history books and get educated.

If you look into our cultural history you will find that there has always been a vulgar, violent element to our society. You just have to read Wellington’s comments about the conscripts of the time as the scum of the earth!
The biggest change is the medias love affair with all things vulgar fed to us as car crash entertainment making us all feel that the minority viewpoint is actually widespread with everyone scrabbling for their 15 minutes of fame. Social media has also allowed this underbelly a voice which again the media are happy to push, the more shocking and vulgar the comments the better.
But ultimately this is our fault as the media only provide a product which we consume in vast quantities as the drug of choice. Unfortunately we are in the bread and circuses (read benefits and reality tv) phase of our societies decline and I doubt if we have the strength to resist the barbarians at the gates if indeed we even should!

Melanie, a wonderful and well-considered article. I am eager for a government to come to power and start rolling out policies designed to enhance and not destroy the social fabric. We should not provide benefits to facilitate unmarried motherhood - it is not a question of being uncaring to those in a difficult circumstance, but of caring about the impact of that on the children. We live in an age where every pregnancy is planned - there is such a thing as contraception and the morning after pill, and so I have no interested in funding the decline in families. I would give the family allowance only to married couples and their children - and double it - and give nothing to the others - and women who have children out of wedlock should be told as a matter of urgency to find husbands. While things like "gay marriage" are too statistically irrelevant to make a huge difference on the ground - they are politically and culturally very prominent, in that the media are continually belabouring the relevant issues - and we need to return to the basic strongly recommended format of one man, one woman and their children as the family unit.

Melanie Phillips could have used some of Margaret Thatcher's scientific attitude borne of her training as a chemist. Because perhaps then many children in Wales wouldn't be severely ill in hospital, their parents having been discouraged by Melanie from taking the MMR vaccine.

Yes I agree with all that you have said Melanie and also personified by the now institutional bullying and intimidation of gay fascism where no opposition to the gay agenda is brooked under threat of gay mob intimidation.

“Margaret Thatcher’s flaw was to view everything through the narrow prism of economics, and thus fail altogether to appreciate the need to shore up those bonds of tradition, custom and informal obligation which could not be fitted into the model of the free-market.”

Ms Phillip's flaw is to fail to appreciate that everything Lady Thatcher tried to do was firmly rooted in the traditional understanding of both family and society.

She wasn't simply a capitalist - but then she wasn't a socialist either. There is an area between the two that most of us operate in.

Oh please. The disintegration of society that you bemoan has been upsetting people for centuries. You talk about our leaders "wilfully destroying the bedrock characteristics of British national identity", presumably over the past 30-odd years, but guess what people were fretting over 30-odd years ago? The same damned thing. And 30 years before then. The "good old days" have NEVER EXISTED, at least in the eyes of those who were actually living through them.

Go read "Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears" by Geoff Pearson before accusing others of having short attention spans.

Melanie points out how vile and unmannered is much modern behaviour.
I suspect that bad behaviour has always been present in England, but that the modern media provide a much wider outlet for it and a much sharper focus on it.
Modern media give scope to exhibitionists, of which there are unfortunately many. Most of them behave very badly indeed.
While I'm in broad sympathy with Melanie's comments that doesn't mean that we sometimes don't still find young people today whose behaviour and approach to life are exemplary.

Our leaders have spent years not defending but wilfully destroying the bedrock characteristics of British national identity, based on that dominant English culture, in order to replace it with something entirely different
Be carefull Ms Phillips or you too will be described as" odious filth" by the bein pensant mainstream as they have about political parties that, however flawed, have tried for years to protect and promote our IDENTITY even to the extent of publishing a news sheet of that name!
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While I have respect for the courage conviction of Baroness Thatcher, it was her beliefs and attitudes which formed the culture of materialism and hyper individualism that you decry today.
However out of context her famous quote might have been taken, it was Lady Thatcher and her party which destroyed the bonds of community and the sense of duty towards society.

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